Perdido 03

Monday, November 2, 2015

Corruption Playoffs Start This Week

In
separate federal courthouses in Lower Manhattan this month, two of the
most powerful men in New York are about to go on trial, an extraordinary
spectacle centering on allegations of corruption, bribery and nepotism
in the state’s highest chambers of political power.

But even as the men, Assemblyman Sheldon Silver,
the former speaker, and State Senator Dean G. Skelos, the former
majority leader, fight the charges and try to restore their reputations,
something else will also be on trial: the culture of Albany, the state
capital.

Court
papers in the two cases suggest that testimony in Federal District
Court will expose in granular detail what watchdog groups say is a seamy
world where big money and politics have long intersected with
government.

There
are accounts of kickbacks disguised as legitimate income; no-show jobs
for a lawmaker’s son; and the use of state money to influence a doctor
to refer clients to a favored law firm that, in turn, paid millions of
dollars to a lawmaker.

The
alleged acts are typical of a culture, according to the watchdog
groups, that has made Albany practically synonymous with corruption and
stubbornly resistant to reform, keeping citizens — and even most
lawmakers — in the dark about much of the legislative work and spending
done in their names.

So Albany's got to brace itself for what could be some eye-opening testimony that puts a lot of people - including the third man in the proverbial "Three Men In A Room" relationship, Andrew Cuomo - on the defensive.